Marina man to be extradited to New York on federal child porn charges

A Marina man facing federal child pornography charges will be extradited to New York State within the next couple of weeks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

FBI agents raided Dennis Whitt’s home Wednesday morning, seizing computers and laptops.

The investigation into Whitt’s activities originated in upstate New York. A father reported to New York State Police in September that his daughter and her friends were performing sexual activities on a web cam at the behest of a man they’d “met online.” That’s according to the federal complaint.

Whitt faces charges of possessing and creating child pornography. Federal officials say he was posing as a teenage boy online and asking teenage girls to perform sexual acts on web cams for him.

According to federal prosecutors, the father discovered his 15-year-old daughter and her 16-year-old friend were engaging in sexual activity using online video chat services with a user who claimed to be a 16-year-old boy named Lucas.

Prosecutors say that person was actually Whitt, who was also engaging in this behavior with other girls, including a 9-year-old girl.

The girls told authorities that “Lucas” would ask them to do sexual things to earn “points” as part of a game. These web interactions took place using the sites Skype and Omegle. At least one of the girls also began exchanging text messages with Whitt.

Whitt used the handle “vampirepirategod” and his profile didn’t contain a photograph of himself.

Whitt appeared in federal court in San Jose Wednesday and will now be transferred to New York State, U.S. Attorney John Duncan said.